His owner, Matt Kozazcki, said he got the “bovine 911 call” at 9 a.m. The bull had somehow escaped from its barn and was headed into town.

“We went looking for it,” said Kozazcki. “It was running.”

Kozazcki described the episode through laughter, giving a play-by-play of the baby bull weaving through city streets. People in their cars gawked at the sight, and those on the street stopped to snap pictures, he said.

“Luckily, he wasn’t angry,” said Kozazcki, who joked that the bull may have been searching for his mother at Newburyport’s Black Cow Tap and Grill restaurant.

Kozazcki said about 40 people joined the effort to capture the bull. After a two-hour chase, the bull became trapped in the gates of the city’s harborside sewage treatment plant and Kozazcki and company were able to catch him.

“It was pretty funny,” he said. “No one got hurt. We can laugh after.”

Kozazcki said other animals have escaped from the farm before, but none have ever hoofed it so far into town.